The Massachusetts Senate has approved a bill focused focused on military veterans that includes provisions to create a psychedelics working group to study and make recommendations about the potential therapeutic benefits of substances like psilocybin and MDMA.
About a month after the House approved its version of the legislation—based on a proposal initially introduced by Gov. Maura Healey (D)—the Senate unanimously approved an amended version of a separate House measure in a 38-0 vote on Thursday. The two chambers must now reconcile their respective bills before the final version potentially goes to the governor’s desk.
The Honoring, Empowering and Recognizing Our Servicemembers and Veterans (HERO Act) is a wide-ranging proposal focused on veterans, but it’s cleared both chambers in different forms with the psychedelics policy reform provisions attached. The House version was also amended earlier to include a section that would create a pilot program to examine medical cannabis as an opioid alternative for veterans.
The psychedelics measure wouldn’t immediately create a framework for legal access, but it would require the Executive Office of Veterans’ Services (EOVS) to convene a working group to study “alternative therapies for mental health treatments for veterans” and exploring “whether psychedelic therapy is associated with improved
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